


I (Don’t) Want to Kiss You, Baby

by Rellanka



Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [79]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Mistakes, Oblivious Zack Fair, Slice of Clack, Texting Mistakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:29:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25350922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellanka/pseuds/Rellanka
Summary: A texting mistake sparks a shakeup that will change the rest of Zack’s life.
Relationships: Zack Fair/Cloud Strife
Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [79]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697269
Comments: 8
Kudos: 147
Collections: Slice of Clack: July 2020





	I (Don’t) Want to Kiss You, Baby

Zack looked down at his phone and considered what he should send his friend. It’d been awhile since he’d last talked to Cloud- okay, to be honest it had been a few hours, but who was counting- and he was missing him. 

Debating for a bit, Zack finally decided on sending a compliment about Cloud’s hair, one he’d wanted to give earlier but hadn’t for some reason. Compliments were always nice, right?

_I really love your hair today, Cloud! I don’t know how you made the choice to style it that way, but it looked great!_ Zack began typing excitedly when someone bumped into him and made him stumble back a little. Raising his gaze in surprise, Zack’s eyes searched out his sudden ‘attacker’ and met those of a terrified cadet obviously running late on some errand. 

“Sir, I’m really sorry, I just-“ The cadet began. 

It was pretty clear that the cadet was badly panicking, already a shade of ashy white, and Zack laughed a little at the thought that _he_ was scary to cadets now. Cloud would never believe it. With a wide smile and a supportive hand pressed firmly but temporarily to the troopers shoulder in a calming pat, Zack tried to let the poor guy know there was nothing to worry about, “Hey, it’s okay! No harm done, man. Just be more careful next time, okay?”

If he’d known the kind of chaos the cadet had just introduced into his life, he might have paid enough attention to his general appearance to be capable of finding him later to punch him. Or hug him, depending on the period of time that he found him. 

As it was, he had no idea about this until the cadet was gone and he looked down at his phone to realize that **he’d accidentally sent the text off** with it perfectly ending after the u of the you. Meaning that instead of his intended message, what the text read was:

_I really love you_

Zack… _freaked out_. He froze, unable to move for several long moments as his brain worked out what this might mean. Okay. Oooookay, despite how he currently felt, this was bad, but not life ending, right? Friends said that they loved each other all the time when they were close, and he and Cloud were really close friends, weren’t they? Yeah, they **definitely** were. The closest of friends. Absolutely. This was fine. 

**_Zack?_** A text replied while he stood there thinking, followed by a flurry of others.

**_Is this a joke?_ **

**_Did you mean it?_ **

**_I mean, I don’t think that you’d joke about something like this…_ **

**_I_ **

**_I love you, too._ **

The texts had all come so fast, Zack hadn’t had time to think of a response.

And the last…

That…

That really didn’t seem like a friendship-type response.

Like. This was pretty much the opposite of what a friend would respond with, right? 

….Meaning that Cloud- his **best friend** I’m so happy to hear that, Cloud!

Would you join me later tonight? 

For a date? ;P

After all, pretending to like Cloud back was a lot better than breaking his heart, right?

***

It was obvious that Cloud had made an effort in his appearance, and it made Zack feel bad that he decidedly had **not** , despite the fact that it was Zack who had managed to score them the reservation to this restaurant.

“So.” Zack began in an attempt to break the awkward silence that had settled over them after the waiter had left, “You look really nice, today. Really datable. In fact, I can’t imagine who wouldn’t want to date you. Totally. You must have, like, a ton of suitors you haven’t told me about. Man was I lucky that you agreed to date **me** -“ Wow, was he being weird about this. Stop it, self.

“Zack.” Cloud finally interrupted dryly, saving Zack like he usually did, “I’m nervous, too, but I agreed to go on a date with you, not with anyone else. Are you going to be this weird the entire time?”

Zack laughed and relaxed in a rush. “Nah,” he said teasingly, “I’ll do what I usually do and leave the being weird part to you.” 

Cloud snorted and playfully tossed a rolled up straw wrapper at him, and as things settled a little closer to their usual normal, the rest of the ‘date’ went pretty damn well. 

***

So dating Cloud was actually pretty great. An excellent excuse to spend time with his friend, and even hold his hand or snuggle without people looking at them weird! In fact, Zack was able to demand daily snuggle time and Cloud didn’t look exasperated or anything like he used to, he just agreed to it with a fond expression! Zack totally had this dating Cloud thing in the bag. In fact, he really should have tried it earlier.

…The thing was, they’d been ‘dating’ for months, and they hadn’t ever kissed yet. And Zack knew that wasn’t normal, knew that most other couples were doing other things by this point, things much more intimate than kissing. Cloud was so sweet about it too, not saying a word or pushing him, even though Zack caught him looking disappointed sometimes. Always when he thought Zack _wasn’t_ looking.

He could just tell Cloud he was asexual or something, he guessed, and he knew that Cloud would understand, wouldn’t push him about it. But something about lying about that sounded like a really skeevy thing to do, and Zack wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep up the act long-term, when he wasn’t **actually** asexual. 

Zack just didn’t know **what** to do.

***

“So now I know that he’s kinda expecting me to kiss him, and it’s really sweet that he’s not pushing me on this, but I won’t be able to just **not** kiss him forever, and _what do I do, Aerith_?!” Zack wailed to probably the best friend he had. Besides Cloud, who had cemented his position in the top spot and who Zack would _really like not to lose_.

Aerith patted some earth down in her garden. “You could always break up with him.” She offered calmly over her shoulder.

Zack pouted and fell flat on his back to stare up at the ceiling of Aerith’s church, “That would hurt his feelings, though.” He finally said softly. 

He could get the sense that Aerith was hesitating about something. Finally, she asked, “Zack, do you remember when I asked you to go on that date on our anniversary and you turned me down?”

“Yeah,” Zack answered, wondering where Aerith was going with this, “Because I needed to help Cloud train for the Soldier exams and I asked you if we could do it another time. You broke up with me for it. You were really mean about it, too.”

Aerith nodded. “Well, our anniversary was important and you could have found someone else to train him.” she pointed out reasonably. She was a lot calmer about that fact now than she had been back then. A **lot** calmer. Zack still had a literal scar from what her reaction to it had been back then. “In fact, someone else probably could have helped Cloud with a lot of things that took up your time. I’m not saying that what you did is bad or that you shouldn’t have helped him.” She said firmly when he began to protest, “I’m just saying that it really seemed like you didn’t want anyone else helping him. Like **you** wanted to be the one spending time with him.”

“I mean, **yeah** , Cloud’s my best friend. Of course I wanted to spend time with him.” Zack said in confusion.

Aerith smiled at him wryly, “I want you to picture how you would have felt if someone else were doing those things for him. If someone else was teaching him to fight, and touching him to correct his form, and being the one to cheer him up if he was sad. If he turned to someone else when he needed help, instead of always going to you first. If he spent a little more time with others, and a little less with you. How do you feel? Because a friend wouldn’t mind that. They’d probably feel happy that their friend had more people to support them. Even a little relieved to have more time to themselves.”

Zack- Zack didn’t feel happy. He didn’t feel relieved. In fact, what Zack felt was a lot like… jealousy. 

Aerith continued before he could bother to try to come up with an answer, “Now I want you to picture if Cloud wasn’t dating you. How would you feel if he was dating someone else? If he was holding hands, and going on dates, and,” here she paused as if to give her words weight, “ _Kissing_ someone else. How does the idea of _that_ make you feel?”

It made him feel furious. It made him feel like he was burning inside, the imagery making him so angry he could punch something here and now. Wow. That feeling sure was something. It… he didn’t need Aerith to tell him that it wasn’t normal friend behavior. 

She smiled supportively at the almost desperate look he threw her, before finishing gently, “Now, I want you to visualize kissing Cloud, and I mean _actually_ visualize it, and see how that makes you feel.”

And while Zack had never really tried to picture it before- had actively tried **not** to picture it, in fact, as he tried to avoid all situations where Cloud would expect such a kiss- now he did picture it. 

And how it made him feel- well. How it made him feel wasn’t really suited for him saying out loud, to anyone who wasn’t Cloud. **Certainly** not to _Aerith_. 

Zack blushed brightly as he avoided Aerith’s knowing gaze, a little hot under the color for more reasons than one.

“I think- I think I need to go speak with Cloud.” He blurted out, springing up from the ground in a rush and sprinting out the door.

‘Say hello to your boyfriend for me!” Aerith laughingly called after him.

***

Zack panted in front of Cloud, having spent the past few hours sprinting through the building looking for him, spreading chaos in his wake. 

Cloud was staring up at him, startled, the papers in his hand lowered to his side in his surprised state. 

“Cloud-“ Zack began, before abruptly deciding to just go for it, and drawing Cloud into a soft, quick kiss. It was everything he’d thought it’d be, when he’d visualized it in Aerith’s church. Everything, and more. Soft, and wet, and affecting Zack way more than such a chaste kiss ever should, sending pleasure racing down his spine and causing him to instantly crave more. More of the kiss, and more of Cloud looking like that, startled but sweet, already almost ravished from one simple kiss. 

“I love you.” Zack confessed, knowing now that that was the real truth, and wondering how long it had been true and how he could have been so blind to it.

“I love you, too.” Cloud said sweetly, and Zack was smiling as he gave into the urges washing over him and claimed his boyfriend’s lips in a kiss that was far deeper and far dirtier than the first.

He’d probably have to talk to Cloud later about some things later, be really honest about what had been going on and how stupid Zack had been. 

But for now, he had a lot of wasted time to make up for. 

And he wasn’t going to let anything hold him back from doing exactly that.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally inspired by a post [here.](https://otpprompts.tumblr.com/post/182826868522/person-a-means-to-send-a-message-to-person-b)


End file.
